Hinesburg, Vermont - A major plan is moving forward to bring jobs and fill a hole left in Hinesburg, Vermont.

Nearly three-years ago a fire heavily damaged a factory and erased around eighty jobs.

The old Saputo Cheese plant will soon be brought back to life. This time as a smokehouse and finally ending three-years of wondering what would happen after a fire started one night.

On a September night in 2008, flames shot up from the Saputo Cheese Factory.  There were twenty-people inside including Logan Houle.

"We go outside and look up and there's blazing fire," said Houle on the night of the fire.

Houle and all the other workers got out safely.

"I can't believe it, you know. A lot of people might be out of jobs you never know," said Houle.

Houle was right. Some 80 people lost their jobs after Saputo decided the fire had caused too much damage to rebuild the factory.

"Three-years-ago a massive fire at this location left an economic void in this community," says Joe Colangelo, Hinesburg town administrator.

That's why Colangelo welcomed the news of a new beginning for this factory.

"We are going to pass out $2-million in Vermont community development grants," says Gov. Peter Shumlin, D-Vermont.

On Tuesday, Shumlin presented grants to several towns but saved the biggest, more than a half-million dollars, for Hinesburg.

The town will loan the money to Vermont Smoke and Cure.

The company's CEO Chris Bailey says the money will help them move operations to the factory which is more than triple the size of its old one.

"It's tremendous to make an expansion like that. Both in terms of volume that we are able to make and also in terms of efficiency," says Bailey.

Bailey says eventually they will be able to double the numbers of workers to around thirty.

Vermont Smoke and Cure says it is still finalizing the money to cover the $5-million expansion.

They hope to start production early next year.